Springs are used in a variety of industries to apply force in a particular direction. In particular, springs are used in seal applications to energize sealing material into contact with a surface and to promote formation of a seal between parts moving relative to one another. Springs useful in such seals can include helically round ribbon or folded flat stock springs.
Folded flat stock springs are conventionally formed through stamping processes. Flat stock is conventionally supplied to a stamping machine that stamps a pattern into the flat stock and the patterned flat stock is subsequently folded to form the flat stock spring. Such springs can be incorporated into seals, such as annular seals or face seals.
However, the conventional stamping process introduces stress into the stamped form, particularly around the edges. Further, stamping results in a considerable amount of waste material and can form burrs and undesirable sharp protrusions on edges of a spring. In addition, such conventional stamping processes are not conducive to continuous processing of metal components and as such, tend to be performed in batch processes, reducing the efficiency of production.
As such, an improved spring and method for forming such springs would be desirable.